No residents attend meeting about ordinances

The Carlsbad Fire Department and the City of Carlsbad Code Enforcement Department is working together to rid the city of overgrown and dried weeds as the pose a fire danger.(Photo: SARAH MATOTT - CURRENT-ARGUS)Buy Photo

A second public meeting will be at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 18 in Artesia at CVE, 1403 N. 13th St.

Although no residents attended the Eddy County event, the committee read one letter they received before the meeting from two Eddy County residents. The letter protested the regulating of weed height, one of the sections included in the vegetation nuisance ordinance.

"Such a regulation would create an unacceptable immediate hazard to human life and health from snake bites," the letter said. "If it forces property owners to cut weeds when snakes are active, this is a greater risk than the property damage from fire that the ordinance is supposed to mitigate."

In response to the letter, Jeff McLean, a member of the committee, said he understood that the ordinances were "not gonna please everybody."

"Is it a snake issue or is it an issue of I just don't want somebody telling me what I can do or not do with my land," McLean said. "But I do, I do understand, I do respect someone else's opinion on what a certain ordinance could impose on individuals."

According to the meeting documents, the liquid waste ordinance regulates "discharge of wastewater from any residential or commercial structure." This includes water from structures such as toilets and sinks.

The draft of the ordinance also says residents would not be allowed to discharge untreated liquid waste except into enclosed systems permitted by the department, a liquid waste treatment unit permitted by the department, or a public sewer system.

Previously, Royce Pearson, county commission chair, said many residents have been running untreated wastewater into the ground.

Meeting documents also said the second ordinance prohibits residents from growing or keeping any accumulation of "nuisance vegetation" or any vegetation higher than 12 inches.

At the meeting, Steve McCrofkey, a code enforcement officer, said if the department sees a property in violation of the ordinances, the first step would usually involve observing the violation and contacting the owner of the property. He said that afterward, the resident usually receives a written notice about the violation and a certain amount of time is given to fix it. If it is not fixed, the individual is usually given another period of time to fix their property.

"At the end of that period, if there's noncompliance or we haven't worked out some form of compliance where the owner is trying to meet, we'll then issue a citation or file a criminal complaint with the magistrate or district courts," McCrofkey said.

The committee also discussed reformatting the font and margins of the documents.

The drafts of the ordinances can be found on the Eddy County website in the agenda for the Feb. 16 meeting.